Overview

From the producers of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the mind of author Katherine Paterson comes a rousing fantasy adventure about family, friendship, and the wondrous power of imagination. A perpetual outsider both at home and at school, Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) just never seems to fit in no matter how hard he tries. When his goal to become the fastest runner in middle school is unexpectedly thwarted by newly arrived classmate Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb), who enters in an "all boys" race and leaves her competitors in the dust, Jess soon strikes up a friendship with the imaginative outsider. Their bond is soon cemented thanks to Leslie's love for storytelling and Jess' skill as an artist, and the two lonely kids create a secret kingdom called Terabithia that is only accessible by swinging over a stream on a nearby rope. Though Jess and Leslie may be considered outcasts by their classmates, their adventures in Terabithia find the pair doing battle against the dreaded Dark Master and his malevolent creatures while plotting revenge against the schoolyard bullies. Now, thanks to his adventures in Terabithia and his friendship with Leslie, Jess finally finds the confidence needed to stand tall and be himself.

Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Perry Seibert

Dealing with subjects of life and death in a story aimed at kids befuddles many storytellers. The best aspect of Gabor Csupo's adaptation of the classic novel Bridge to Terabithia is the very personal, unique way the character responds to the profound events that affect him. Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is a shy boy, unable to express his frustrations with bullies, his father, and the fact that he's forced to wear hand-me-down sneakers from his sister. Only by drawing can he get these feelings out. That is until a new family moves in next door, and soon he has a friend for life in Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), the daughter of authors who love her but let her spend a great deal of time alone. She can create a story with as much facility as Jess can draw, leading to their creation of Terabithia, a fantasy world where the pair symbolically confront the problems they face in the real world. Csupo manifests this fictional world in the most natural ways -- the magical creatures they create in their minds simply appear without any fanfare. These sequences become more and more ornate as the film progresses, but Csupo manages to keep them grounded in an uncomplicated psychological truth. By staying true to these characters' unique personalities, the audience can see them not as symbols but as real people with familiar problems. When fate deals Jess a very painful life lesson in the film's third act, the filmmakers have gotten so far inside the character that the they don't have to overwhelm the viewer with any gaudy emotional excess. For a film that deals with powerful feelings of mourning and grief and guilt, the screenwriters and the director earn profound emotions without magnifying them into melodramatic excess. The viewers experience the pain and catharsis exactly as Jess does. It would be enough that Bridge to Terabithia never talks down to its preteen audience, but it turns out to be something much better because it doesn't talk down to the adults in the audience either.